Rebeca's First Boyfriend

I'll bet that this title caught your attention. I kid you not, this is the title of one of the books in the fourth grade classroom (Rebeka no hajimete boifurendo). I can't read Japanese, though, so I can't tell you any more about the story, except that the few pictures in it all depict someone looking depressed or angry or crying. And the "boifurendo" has a pretty bad white boy's fro going on.

Kids can ask some strange questions. I got the strangest question today. It wasn't translated too clearly, but it amounted to something like, "What is your favorite clothing pattern?" As in stripes, plaid, leopard print or polka dots. Turns out the boy who asked the question is fond of leopard print.

And in an immature twist of Halloween vocabulary, the Haunted House became the Panty House the other night during my hectic kids' evening conversation class. Those kids will always remember the Panty House as part of Halloween tradition. Oh well.

Even more random: Zuma only seems to drink water while he's outside and only eat food when he's inside. Strange dog.

Now some good stuff! Yesterday was a fun and exciting day. In the morning I went to another kendo tournament - this one ended at early 1 pm, so I was back home by 2. I spent a lot of time entertaining a rambunctious and adorable two-year-old named Dai. I found out that his kid has an arm flab fettish. He would come up to me frequently just to pinch my arm fat. Sometimes, after being scolded by his mom  not to do that, he would try kissing the arm flab. Sometimes he grew bored of the arm flab and would shout "oppai!" with a huge smile and, while I was sitting, run at me with his hands out in front of him. "Oppai", by the way, means breasts. His mom then would say things like, "No! Dai, here, come play with Mommy's breasts. Leave Rebeca's alone!"

After the kendo tournament, I decided I had time to give Zuma a bath and maybe head to Yatsushiro city to see the much-talked-about Yatsushiro Fireworks. I thought it would only take about 1.5 hours to get there, and that I had plenty of gas. Turns out I sorely underestimated the number of people who would be at this thing. 1.5 hours turned into 2.5 hours and plenty of gas turned into just enough gas. I had a hard time finding a place to park, and eventually turned into a small lot about a 10 minute walk from the viewing area where it looked like other cars had parked. Completely unsure of myself, I asked if it would be ok for me to park there, how much it cost, and proceeded to take the last parking space.

The lot was for a small mechanics garage. There were people inside it having a small barbecue party. It took three of them to clarify what I was asking ("Where/Whom do I pay?" except I don't know the word for "pay") and after some embarrassment on both sides, the lady who helped translate invited me to come join their party after watching the fireworks. Well, after watching the fireworks, meeting a few other JETs and talking briefly with them, I took the group up on their offer.

The garage was a motorcycle garage, where several members of the group worked. Most of the men had motorcycles, or at least really liked them. They had a small mixed shiba dog named after a famous motorcyclist (I only caught "Roshi", which was her nickname). They were really nice, and offered me some coffee/tea (I got both handed to me) and sushi and mini hotdogs. Two of them spoke really good English. An unlikely pair they were: Ara is a college student who doesn't like English and Toshie is a middle-aged woman who did not study English in college but simply listens to English radio talk shows and reads some English books. Both of them spoke incredibly well considering their experience (neither had traveled to an English-speaking country) and they were much more willing to try to speak English than about 98% of Japanese people. So while I waited for the traffic out of the city to actually start moving before trying to drive, I made some new friends. We exchanged phone numbers and they may invite me to future barbecue events.

And now here are some pictures from yesterday's trip and this morning's walk with Zuma.

I took the scenic route to Yatsushiro. This was probably the most scenic part.

The route I took narrowed at some parts to become a one lane road.

A really pretty house I passed on the way.

A rather pretty sunset, which I took the time to take a picture of while I was stuck in traffic on the bridge.

Fireworks! A sea of people were seated on the grass along the river, many with blankets, shawls, sleeping bags and picnic dinners. There were plenty of food stands, as well.

Beautiful! There were several displays accompanied by music - creating an effect a little like the dancing fountains at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. This one was to the tune of "Under the Sea"

The following pictures were all taken while I took Zuma for a walk. There are some really pretty houses and scenery within a 15 minute walk from my house, so I thought I'd showcase a few.

This is just around the corner from where I live.

Here I turned off the main road and went down a street into a neighborhood that I think has some really pretty houses.

This one seems to have solar panels!

Few houses have garages as we conceive them. This is a more commonly used car covering.

This is another popular garage style.

These are the windmills that are both a great landmark and fairly well-known in these parts.

The post office. Closed because it's Sunday.

The mailbox. Orange is the color of the Japan Post.

This is the main entrance to the "yakuba", or Village Office, where I work when I'm not at school.

The yakuba parking lot.

Another view of the yakuba.

The library/community center building is nearing completion, right next door to the yakuba.

My car, parked in the yakuba parking lot.

The street where I live. On the right is the recreational building where kendo practice takes place. On the left is my house.

The recreational building. On the right are the construction cones from the library building.

My house

Left view from my backyard.

Right view from my backyard, which is my neighbor's house (remember the neighbor who petted me?).

My backyard

Where I hang my clothes to dry. That's Zuma's towel.

My ingenious and resourceful method of keeping Zuma from escaping the backyard.

Zuma looking confused because he can't get out.

My mailbox. It happens to be right next to my front door, which means the mailman would have to go through my obstacle course to get to it. This makes the Zuma solution a temporary one for the weekends mostly.